'A place of our own'

St. Augustine Church in South Bend was founded for black families.

St. Augustine Church in South Bend was founded for black families.

February 07, 2008|MAY LEE JOHNSON Tribune Columnist

It wasn't easy to be a black Catholic in South Bend in the late 1920s. John Lee Williams couldn't be stopped. He was determined to raise his family in the Catholic faith. Ruby Williams Hockaday, who was born a Catholic and is a longtime member of St. Augustine Catholic Church, remembers well getting up early on Sunday mornings and heading to church with her family. "Before blacks were given our own church, we would get up and ride across the river to St. Joseph Parish," Hockaday said. She often felt unwelcome there. "Yes, you could worship in the same church as white Catholics. But you had to use a separate entrance, and you had to sit in the back," she said. The discrimination felt by blacks in the South Bend community did not go unnoticed. The late Bishop John Francis Noll decided to establish a parish for the few black families. "Father John O'Connor, a Holy Cross priest, had heard about the problems blacks were having," Hockaday said. "He took it upon himself to become the parish priest for the black Catholics. "We had the mission house in 1928 that was a part of St. Joseph parish, the first worshipping place for blacks." Black Catholic families preferred a place closer to their homes. O'Connor asked Noll to buy a church for the members of the small community of St. Augustine parishioners. Noll suggested instead that blacks attend the white parishes on the west side. "I remember hearing that blacks who tried to attend Mass at the white churches in the neighborhood had to sit in the back of the church," Hockaday said. "They were often the last to receive Communion and were shunned by the members. Black Catholics were in great need of a place of their own." Finally, around 1938 or 1939, black Catholics received a storefront in the 1200 block of West Washington Street. Then St. Augustine Parish officially moved to the west side. "Although the roof leaked right over the altar, it didn't matter," Hockaday said. "It was a place of our own." After two years of fundraisers, donations, help from the diocese and a lot of hard work from the growing congregation, St. Augustine was ready to buy land for a new church. The groundbreaking for the new St. Augustine Catholic Church was on Nov. 24, 1940, and construction began the next day. Hockaday's father plowed the ground for the new church. "I remember it like it was yesterday because I rode around with my father," Hockaday said. "He was so proud that we were going to have a church where we would always be welcome. "That's just how St. Augustine's is today. Although it was built for blacks in the city, everyone was and still is welcome to come and worship." Listen to May Lee Johnson live at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays on WUBS-FM (89.7). Staff writer May Lee Johnson: mjohnson@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6326